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Tuesday, 1 February 2011

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

A normal convention of a teaser trailer length is between 30-60 seconds long and my teaser trailer follows this convention. From my research tasks where I had to analyse 3 other teaser trailers, I noticed that in all 3 teaser trailers the shots used were about 1-2 second long. During the making of my teaser trailer, I tried following this convention and have done it successfully as most of my shots don't run longer than 2 seconds therefore it gives the trailer more of a tease. In the beginning of the teaser trailer, I also created my own personalised green screen rating card with the text that says that the preview has been approved for audiences. I put this within the trailer as it is one of the conventions of trailers and very recognised. I have also edited the teaser trailer and cropped the frames on the top and bottom to make it look more cinematic.

I have been researching into the horror genre and therefore I have adapted my teaser trailer to fit into that genre. Researching other teaser trailers with the same genre that I wanted to do, has taught me some of the conventions needed to successfully make the teaser trailer. Another one of those conventions, that I have used, are the use of on-screen text. I think on-screen text is helpful in terms of making sense of the teaser trailer itself and a little bit about the narrative shown. My storyline for my teaser trailer has also incorporated another convention of the horror genre as the plot of my story involves one survivor in a deserted area.

I challenged one of the conventions of a teaser trailer by not following a chronological order of events within the sequence. This is shown through the zombie banging on the door twice and the glass smash also happens twice. The first time in showing the zombie bang on the door, this happens in the beginning of the teaser trailer before any of the action happens, I done it this way because this would make the audience feel more on edge and also captivate them as well as allowing them to see the main point of the teaser trailer which is the zombie.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I would say that the combination of my film magazine cover and film poster come together well. Within the film magazine cover, I used a red font for the magazine title and the main cover line. This was to ensure that the title and cover line would stand out to the audience. The big bold red font really helped to incorporate that horror theme as red is the colour of blood, which is connected with horror, and the font has a bloody element to it as it's dripping down which matches perfectly with my teaser trailer.

To maintain the horror theme to my magazine front cover I made the background black and slightly darkened my main image. Under the main title of the magazine I put the words “The Horror Edition”, this was to ensure that the audience would immediately see that this is a horror magazine cover. The main image also added some effect as it was the main characters from my teaser trailer and shows off their actions well with the zombie going at the main character who is in the middle of the other two characters. Therefore she is the main character in the middle of disaster.

Similarly with my magazine cover, I also wanted my film poster to connect with the horror genre by adding a very dark atmosphere with the black and red background and using the same red font as it connects well with the horror genre as red represents blood or to alert danger.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my audience feedback I have learnt that about what's good or bad about my teaser trailer, what could be improved and if it's successful in showing the horror genre of the teaser trailer. From the feedback, the good elements of the teaser trailer that was commented on was the speed of the shots and how short they were as this creates a sense of fast cutting. My audience also liked the make up on the zombie character as well as the main character who walked down the stairs at the end where she says “hello”.

The things my audience didn't like was how it was hard to see the smashing of the glass properly and from my feedback I also learnt that some of my audience did not fully understand the sequence of the film and how the bumping of the jar in the beginning of the teaser trailer does not connect. Another thing that was disliked was how the main character acted when getting away from the zombie and how no fear was shown from the main character. Some close up shots should have been included to incorporate the fear.

From this audience feedback, some improvements that could be done would be to enhance the glass smash and make it more apparent to the audience and also include close up shots to show the facial expression from the actors which could help generate more meaning of the narrative. Another possible improvement could be making it more clear as to why the person is being bumped into in the beginning and maybe have some more zombie attacks.

The last question I asked my audience was if my teaser trailer was successful in showing the horror genre. My audience agreed that it was successful because of the darkness within the scenes and the red font that is shown through the on-screen text, it was said that it suits the horror theme as well as the rock music in the background which is from the band, You Me At Six – The Consequence.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,planning and evaluation stages?

For my A2 coursework I made a teaser trailer, a magazine cover and a film poster. I had to do research and planning for all three. The research stage for my A2 coursework involved having to research 3 other teaser trailers, 2 other magazine covers and 2 other film posters. I gathered my 3 teaser trailers from the internet and I analysed them in detail. I made deconstruction scripts for each of the teaser trailers and went into the radio studio to record voice clips on the microphone of me analysing the teaser trailers.

Therefore this is me using new media technology and I also used the Final Cut Pro software on the MAC computer to edit the deconstructions with the voice clips included. With the computer I also took screen grabs of the shots in the teaser trailer and included them in my deconstruction videos to show what I’m referring to as I speak. I did the same for the deconstructions of my magazine covers and film posters.

As part of my research, focus groups were recorded with a digital camera. The focus groups showed the 3 teaser trailers to my audience and after each one I asked questions so that I could get their opinion on them to help me find out what the audience enjoys when watching a teaser trailer.

For the planning of my teaser trailer, I constructed a photo storyboard which included photo’s I took with a digital camera. I done it in this way because taking photos will show the camera shots better than in a drawing. The casting notes and location report were also done using a digital camera to take photos of the cast and photos of the locations that were going to be used in my teaser trailer. I have also used the radio room to record voice clips to talk over my photos for location report and casting.

All through the production piece for my teaser trailer, I used the Final Cut Pro software for the editing. I used the cutting tool to get rid of the footage that I don't want to be included within my teaser trailer sequence. I have also included on-screen text with the text tool to enhance my on-screen text with the controls provided, so I was able to change the type of font and the colour. I also added the fade effect when the text comes on screen. I did this to ensure seamless transitions between the video and text. To create the green screen rating card, I had to include layers of text on the time line on final cut pro to personalise it with my own font to make it original and anchors my project well as it includes my production company's name and also the name of my film magazine. Using final cut pro, I changed the lighting of all my shots to make it more dark and eery, I used the colour corrector tool for this.

For my evaluation, I had to answer 4 questions about my production piece and overall piece of coursework. I answered the questions and typed it out as a script and recorded myself with a digital camera. After I have recorded myself, I used Final Cut Pro, once again, to edit everything and also take screen grabs from my teaser trailer, magazine cover and and film poster to include in my evaluation so that when I speak, I can refer to the images to show what I'm talking about. By doing so, it makes it more clear as to what I'm talking about. I also used the text tool on Final Cut Pro to introduce the questions on-screen.